


A Big Old Dinosaur

by ladyofreylo



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Based on a True Story, Champagne, College, Cookies, F/M, Fluff, Happy Ending, Love Story, New Relationship, No Smut, Professors, Star Wars Modern AU, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, bye bye 2020, happy new year, just cutenes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:00:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28464237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyofreylo/pseuds/ladyofreylo
Summary: Happy New Year, everyone!Last of the cookie fics.In this story, Ben and Rey share what have to be the worst cookies ever at a fundraiser at Chandrila University.  Rose Tico, the sweetest person ever, baked them.  Ben wants to throw them away...  Rey wants to keep Rose from finding out the ugly and tasteless truth:  that her cookies are awful.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 8
Kudos: 74





	A Big Old Dinosaur

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on a true story. I went to a New Year's Eve party at a friend's house one year. Her name was indeed Rose and she baked these horrendous cookies. She proudly wandered around the party offering them to everyone.
> 
> Thanks to my besties for beta reading.

This year, the Department of Public Communication decided to host a charity function as part of their service to the community. All departments at Chandrila University were asked to do something during the holiday season, and this year, Professor Rey Johnson talked her colleagues into hosting a New Year’s Eve party with an eye toward raising money for the Children’s Theater of Hanna City.

The party was supposed to be dress-up, so Rey slipped herself into a delicate blush-colored gown with spaghetti straps. Utterly stupid for the time of year, but she loved New Year’s Eve. She loved the sparkle and champagne.

She and her colleagues had rented the college’s reception room with its palm trees and tasteful decor, tiny kitchen off the back, floor-to-ceiling picture windows looking out over the campus. University catering had taken care of food and drinks, but Rey had invited parents of the theater kids to provide desserts: cookies, cake pops, brownie bites, and the like. They’d gotten a rather slim response to the request, but Rose, Rey’s right-hand woman at the theater, had bullied a few people into donating. Rose was a lovely, perky woman with a warm embrace and a huge smile. She was instrumental in helping Rey and the other committee members in the Department pull off this party.

Rey had boldly emailed the new Dean of the College of Engineering and invited him. He might have other plans--it was New Year’s Eve after all--but it never hurt to ask. The party would wrap up before midnight.

That evening, Rey was surprised to see quite a few professors and department chairs from all over the University stopping by. 

Then she saw why. 

Dr. Benjamin Solo walked in dressed in a black evening suit that fit him like a glove. Rey hadn’t really met him up close and personal. Interviews had been conducted behind closed doors and he’d given a couple of presentations, but Rey hadn’t been in attendance. She’d seen Dr. Solo’s picture in the online publication that was sent to faculty, but she hadn’t actually spoken to him.

He was a big presence in real life. He stood tall with his hands in his pockets, scanning the room, nodding at acquaintances, and rubbing elbows with the cream of the math/science crop.

Rose circulated with a platter of different kinds of cookies, exhorting everyone to take a sample. She bubbled up to Dr. Solo who had positioned himself by a palm with his back to the long picture windows that showed the lights of Hanna City.

He looked down at tiny Rose with her plate of cookies. He selected one carefully.

Rose giggled and walked away. Rey stepped closer, watching Dean Solo take a huge bite of the cookie.

He turned suddenly and spat into the plant. He literally gagged.

Rey blinked.

Did she just see the Dean of a Engineering spit a cookie into a plant?

She rushed forward.

“Dr. Solo,” she said. He turned and wiped his mouth with a napkin.

Rey’s mouth opened and no sound came out. She swallowed. “Did you just spit into that plant?”

His face took on a hunted look for a moment. “Uh, yes, maybe. Yes.” He held out the cookie.

“That was a cookie baked by a parent,” Rey hissed. She didn’t care who she was talking to. He had no right to spit Rose’s cookie into a plant.

He peered at her. “Did you taste one? The woman said she baked them herself.”

“Rose Tico. They’re her specialty. Dinosaur cookies,” Rey said, still indignant.

He stared at her. “They taste like they have real dinosaurs in them.” He paused. “With whom am I speaking?”  
“Rey Johnson, Public Comm. Rose is part of the parent committee who organized this event.”

“Good for her,” Dr. Solo said. “Her cookies are awful.”

“How can they be awful? They’re cookies,” Rey said.

He held out the other half of his. Well, more than half. It was shaped like a dinosaur, a brontosaurus to be precise. He’d bitten through the neck and the body remained.

“Are cookies supposed to be gray?” he asked.

Rey stared at it. The thing was indeed a dark gray color with no decorations or marking of any kind.

“I don’t know,” Rey said. “What flavor is it?” She looked up into his eyes. He widened them at her.

“Uh, I’m not sure,” he answered. “Take a bite and you tell me.”

Rey took a hesitant nibble.

“More,” Ben said. “I took a huge bite.”

Rey took a bigger bite. She chewed.

The odd, rather musty flavor suffused her mouth. She couldn’t swallow it.

It was that bad.

She leaned over and spat into the plant and then she looked daggers at him. Dr. Ben Solo was laughing.

“I told you,” he said.

“Oh my God, what is in those things?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “No one else seems to be eating them. I’d get them off the table, if I were you. I see a whole platter of them.”

Rey scooted over to the long table that held the food. She quickly snatched the offending cookies from the display.

Rose caught up with Rey and saw the cookies in her hand. “Ah, I see you have the cookies. Trying to steal them all for yourself?” Rose giggled her cute little laugh.

Behind Rose’s head, Rey made eye contact with Ben. He shrugged.

Not helpful.

“I was going to see if there were more in the kitchenette area, Rose,” Rey improvised.

Ben’s grin widened. He mimicked throwing them into the trash.

Rey pressed her lips together to keep from laughing.

Most of the upper admin people she knew would never be that silly in public.

Rose’s smile got broader. “Nope, those are the only ones for this party. I’m so glad you are enjoying them.”

“Uh, yeah,” Rey said.

Ben stepped forward. “Ms. Tico,” he said, all kinds of smooth and polite. “Thank you so much for donating your cookies to this fundraiser.” He gazed at Rey for a long moment. “Really, we should be baking you cookies instead.” He twitched his head a little.

Rey got the hint suddenly. She whisked the platter into the small kitchen area and looked around wildly. What to do with them?

Ben Solo strode in momentarily.

“Toss them,” he muttered. “Don’t make others suffer.”

“Are you sure?” Rey asked.

“Do it,” he said.

She stared at him for a moment. “I can’t do it, Dr…”

“Ben,” he said.

“I can’t throw Rose’s cookies away. It’s not right.”

He gave her a keen look. “You’re not going to put them back out, though. Why not?” His lips twitched.

She looked at them. They were plusher than most men’s lips. He pressed them together in an effort to keep from laughing outright.

Rey looked into his gaze and he winked at her, just a tiny wink, almost undetectable. And audacious.

“Dr. Solo,” Rey said repressively. “I can’t put the cookies back out there.”

Two of the University catering staff walked in.

Rey pressed her lips together. Ben took a step closer and took the plate from her hand. He set it on the counter.

“Why not?” he asked.

“You know why,” she hissed. “Are you messing with me?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“Why?” Rey asked. The catering staff walked back out.

He leaned closer to her. “We might be the only two people here who’ve eaten the cookies. We have to protect the others.”

“And Rose,” Rey added.

He raised his brows. “Why protect Rose?”

“She doesn’t need to know that the cookies are bad. Maybe she thinks they’re good. They’re her specialty, she said.”

“Do you think she likes them? Or did the recipe go wrong?”

“I don’t know,” Rey said. “But dummy up about it.”

“Dummy…?” He looked astonished. “You’re telling me to dummy up?”

“Yeah,” Rey said softly. “There’s no need to embarrass Rose Tico. She’s a working mom who is trying to do something good for her kids. So what if the recipe went wrong? No reason anyone has to know that.”

Ben stood looking at Rey. She blinked a couple of times under his scrutiny.

“Rey Johnson, you’re the most decent, caring person I’ve met in a long time. You restore my faith in humanity.”

She said nothing for a moment. She thought he might be kidding her. Then she realized he was serious.

“Thank you,” she said softly. “That’s the nicest thing anyone has said to me.”

More caterers returned to the small kitchen area. Rey had to move aside to let one through.

“We need to get out of their way,” Rey said. “I should go check on…” she waved a hand. “Something.”

She left and walked out into a much-smaller crowd than before. Gwen, co-chair of the committee, found Rey.

“I think it’s about time to shut it down, Rey,” she said. “We’ve done well.”

Rose came up to the two of them and hugged each in turn. “Thank you both for choosing the Children’s Theater. We’re grateful to you and the University for showing how much you care about kids who don’t have access to live theater. It’s very important.”

“You’re welcome,” Rey said. “Thanks for helping us out with the cookie-baking effort.”

“Oh, no problem,” Rose said. She turned. “Well, Dr. Solo, it was a great success.”

Rey turned to see Ben standing behind her. He murmured an assent to Rose’s statement.

She stepped closer. “Now, listen, I saw what you did with my cookies. You and Rey.”

Rey exchanged a quick and desperate glance with Ben.

“Don’t you two think that I didn’t see it.” Rose chuckled. “You hid my dino cookies in the back.”

“Well,” Rey stuttered.

Rose put a hand on her arm and laughed. “No, I get it. I know.” She handed Rey a package wrapped in foil and then gave one to Ben. “You two were trying to keep them all to yourselves. Well...” She grinned. “I packed the ones on the plate up for you and I had another batch in my car for later. You can each have a package to take home.”

Rey smiled weakly.

Ben turned away and coughed. Rey fought the urge to smack him on the back. Hard.

“Thank you so much, Rose,” Rey said.

“Yes, indeed,” Ben echoed.

Rey didn’t dare meet his eyes or she would dissolve or fall apart or laugh or groan.

Rose twinkled her fingers at them. “You’re so welcome. Any time!”

She left, calling goodbyes to everyone within earshot.

Rey closed her eyes and took a breath. She looked down at the package of cookies; she met Ben’s amused gaze.

“Cookies?” she asked mildly.

“You must have really liked them,” Gwen said. “I never got a chance to try one. Too busy.”

Rey and Ben both tried to hand her their packs.

“Oh, no thanks,” Gwen said with a smile. “I’m good.”

“You know, I’m really impressed with your department,” Ben said to Gwen and Rey, tucking the cookies under his arm. “I’m about to head out. Thank you for the invitation. Dr. Johnson, may I speak with you a moment?”

“Certainly.”

“I’m going to grab my coat in the hallway,” he said.

“I’ll walk you there,” Rey answered.

They left the room and the heavy doors of the reception room swished shut. They walked around the corner to the coat racks.

Rey leaned against the wall. Ben joined her. They dissolved into giggles.

“Want some cookies?” Rey said and tried to give him her package.

“No, you?” he answered and wiped his eyes. He tried to hand her his cookies.

“What a thing,” Rey said.

“At least she never knew how bad they were,” Ben answered. “I salute you. I’d like to share my cookies with you as a prize for keeping such a big secret.”

“No, you’re too kind.” Rey started to laugh again. “I can’t possibly accept.”

They leaned on the wall for a long moment. Ben finally grabbed his coat off the rack nearby. “What are you up to for the rest of the evening? Care to join me to ring in the New Year?”

“Where?” Rey asked.

“Rooftop, Chandrila Suites. There’s a small party up there to watch the Hanna City fireworks at midnight. Let’s bring them our cookies.”

Rey grinned. “Okay.” She chewed her lip for a moment. “I should help shut this fundraiser down.”

“I can wait.”

<>

A fire crackled merrily in the chilly air as Rey stepped out onto the rooftop terrace. Ben took the packs of cookies and placed them on a table. He couldn’t suppress a big grin.

“You’re planning to poison your friends?” Rey whispered.

“Better them than me,” he murmured. 

A small gathering of friends welcomed them. Someone handed Rey a glass of champagne and Ben drew her to a couch by the firepit. They replaced their coats with a few soft fleece blankets. Rey slipped off her shoes, while Ben took off his suit coat and untied his tie. He opened his shirt and rolled up the sleeves.

They chatted while watching the dancing flames reach toward the heavens.

Rey sipped her refilled champagne and listened to Ben reminding everyone of the time.

He draped an arm around Rey’s shoulders and she realized that he would be the one she’d kiss at midnight.

And that was fine with her. She hadn’t kissed someone on New Year’s Eve since… well, a few years had gone by.

The countdown started in earnest. All over the city, people hung out of their windows and counted. Rey found herself lost in Ben Solo’s hazel brown eyes.

Five.. Four.. Three.. Two..

His soft lips found hers and he kissed her eagerly. She slipped an arm around his shoulder and touched his face.

He pulled back to look into her eyes. They smiled at one another as fireworks burst around them.

He nuzzled in for another kiss.

They both heard it at the same time.

“Ugh,” Ben’s friend Finn said in a loud voice. “What the fuck is this? It’s a dinosaur? It tastes like …”

“Dinosaurs,” Rey said.

“Real ones,” Ben agreed.

They looked behind them as Finn spit the cookie over the side of the building.

“Now, that’s just gross,” Ben said.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
